*opens link*
*sees beam rifle*
*closes link*
I half posted that to spark a fresh bit of revulsion at the aim assist/bullet magnetism levels in Halo 4
They really have to address that plus reinstate de-scoping for Halo 5. Probably the most important issue for Halo moving forward along with the removal of Armour Abilities.
I've seen several posts in the last few months here speak of Halo 4 having 'amazing gunplay' and claim that if you stripped AA's, perks, ordnance and sprint from the game, they'd play it every night. They're the custodians of their own opinions but I personally doubt that would be the case. I think the debate on 'gunplay' needs clarity on Halogaf, particularly in regards to what people actually mean by that word. In general, when I see the sentiment that Halo 4 has brilliant gunplay I interpret that as Halo players being so browbeaten by blooming reticles in Reach that they feel spoiled and disproportionately grateful that the guns in Halo 4 fire bullets straight, uninfluenced by the cadence of the trigger pull. Three years of 3's ambiguous BR spread and two years of having to crouch and pace shots like it's some sort of staid 9-5 have skewed the gunplay debate.
Halo 4's gunplay has two major, chronic issues:
1) Flinch. I find it difficult to reconcile how players can champion the gunplay whilst strongly disliking flinch; the two are almost inextricable, especially so in the case with Halo 4 where the majority of the maps are large and so medium to long range battles predominate. Disliking flinch is disliking the gunplay.
Flinch completely breaks the relationship between precision weapons and the sniper. A half decent sniper on Halo 4 shoots through flinch with ease and leaves a horrid feeling in the gut of the player who is so casually blained. It also nullifies the nuance of mid range battle; in Halo 2 and 3 it didn't pay to try to incessantly rescope between shots (ala Reach's mid-long range DMR battles) and so a battle ensued that was fought with reduced aim assist. In Halo 4, red reticle range becomes an afterthought because at mid-range a player can simply stay scoped the entire time and enjoy all the benefits of close range aim assist and bullet magnetism.
2) The aim assist levels. I honestly believe that the mass exodus from Halo 4 is in large part due to this. I've gone back to playing Halo 3 occasionally. Every other game I seethe, spit, rage and decry at least one incident that occurs. Reach could often seem like a meditation on whether video games were a leisure activity or a form of mental endurance training. I and many others on here still played these games regularly and near exclusively until the release of the subsequent title. Halo 4 came and went like a transient Gears of War title. 'Boredom', along with frustration, was the most common reason cited. Many things make Halo 4 boring to play for more than half an hour but chief among them must be the listlessness of its weapon combat. Gigantic hitboxes; Hercules-strong bullet magnetism; aim assist so insistent that it actually ruins your grenade throwing arc on an almost game to game basis. The ease with which you can 5 shot a distant opponent with the DMR in BTB is almost insulting it's so straightforward.
Other weapons which undermine Halo 4's gunplay:
The AR: Grossly overpowered, burns through enemies with minimal aiming required. Doubly unbalanced when paired with quick reload (quick reload affects an integral part of the interplay between different weapons and so damages the gunplay in Halo 4. Wasn't mentioned earlier because of the 'all perks stripped out' caveat).
SAW: The AR x2. Pathetically unbalanced and makes Halo 4 seem like a toy for infant school children to play with.
The Beam Rifle: See gif above. Should've been a day 1 patch. Laughable that it still exists as it does.
The Binary Rifle: Somewhat balanced by its scoped laser. But is there much 'play' in using this gun, so to speak? Feels both unsatisfying to kill with and cheap to die by. A Holmesian vision, a sniper for people who can't snipe, added purely for Halo's wheelchair Reich.
Sticky Detonator: Fine in isolation but when considered as a replacement for/re-imagining of Reach's Grenade Launcher suddenly seems very one dimensional and uninspired.
Boltshot: Useless primary fire (which I believe was bugged, would always seem to jam when fired rapidly, as does the 'flagnum'). Essentially served as a pocket shotgun off spawn and no doubt had thousands rifling through the bin for the Halo 4 receipt of purchase.
The Halo series by gunplay:
Halo CE - Projectile based, shot leading, effective strafing, loads of nuance, didn't have to accommodate latency realities. Great.
Halo 2 - Obscene amounts of aim assist. Sweep sniping. Button glitches added depth. Still had fast YY weapon switching, which is a massive plus.
Halo 3 - Terribly frustrating bullet spread which rendered the BR ineffectual at longer ranges and sometimes puzzled at closer ranges. Projectile based, required shot leading which adds depth and nuance to the gun battles. The hardest sniper rifle in the series to use and consequently the most rewarding.
Reach - Bloom, which is obviously awful but did at least add some sort of 'depth' to the gunplay. Featured one of the series' best and most unique weapons, the Grenade Launcher.
The greatest asset of Halo 4's gunplay is its consistency. The bullets fire straight, the reticles for the most part do not bloom, the BR spread is tighter. However, it's also, for the most part, consistently boring. You don't have to think about degrees of leading based on distance. Bullets
don't fire straight when fired toward an enemy spartan, they powerfully magnetise towards them. Headshot hitboxes are far larger than they should be.
Firing a gun in Halo 4 just isn't that interesting. They can remove AA's and perks and add all the ranking systems they want for Halo 5 but if the gunplay carries over from 4 then it won't be a game worth buying an Xbox One for.
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